ROCKFORD - For the fourth straight year, most Winnebago County taxing bodies have asked for more money from a shrinking property tax pot.

The value of all property in Winnebago County fell again last year, this time by approximately 7 percent, according to preliminary assessor's figures. Because property taxes depend in part on values, local governments must decide whether to work with less money or raise taxes on people whose homes have depreciated. Most did the latter.

Winnebago County has 86 units of government - from schools and cities to parks and preserves - that levy property taxes. Last year, 58 asked for more property tax money, which will affect tax bills coming this spring. Ten left their tax levies unchanged from the previous year.

"We are going on a dead-end street," said Jim Novak of Concerned Citizens of Rockford, a local tax watchdog group. "It's going to be a failure eventually. The values can't keep going down and the taxes going up."

When government bodies ask for more after property values drop, tax rates rise so tax agencies can get the amount they want. It's still too soon to determine the effect on this year's upcoming bills. The county clerk's office won't calculate the tax rates until April, after the Board of Review has completed its hearings on assessment challenges.

Rockford homeowners might see lower bills despite a majority of taxing bodies asking for more money. That's what happened last year after the Rockford School District, which makes up the majority of a city taxpayer's bill, cut its property tax levy by nearly $16 million. Others, including Rock Valley College, Greater Rockford Airport Authority and Rockford township had smaller reductions. About 67 percent of Winnebago County taxpayers saw a smaller bill in 2013 than 2012, according to calculations by Tom Walsh, Winnebago County's supervisor of assessments.

This year several large taxing bodies again reduced their levies, albeit by lesser amounts than last year's significant drop. Among those who will take less are Rockford schools, the city, Rock Valley College, Rockford Township, Rockford library and the airport authority.

State tax caps limit property tax increases either to 5 percent more than the previous year or the rate of inflation, whichever is less.

State Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, has twice filed bills designed to prohibit local governments from raising taxes when property values fall. Both times it failed. Opponents said it would harm cash-strapped local governments that had been forced to make cuts after the start of the 2007 recession. Lobbyists took to Springfield to fight the bill, Franks said.

"The same government that keeps raising your levies went and hired lobbyists with your tax dollars to defeat it in the Senate, to make sure they can keep taking money that I think most citizens would agree they shouldn't have," Franks said.

Page 2 of 2 - Franks filed House Bill 4273 on Jan. 23 to give voters a chance to say whether local government should be allowed to raise property taxes when values fall. The bill would allow a non-binding referendum in the November general election. Franks expects a battle just to get the measure on the ballot.

"It's axiomatic that when citizens have less, government should have less. Instead of government throwing an anchor to someone who's drowning, they should be throwing them a life raft."